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Executive Leadership

Nicole Alvino always knew that someday, she’d own her own business. An Enron employee with degrees in economics and Japanese, Alvino had
already planned on attending business school when the energy company
imploded, and her professors encouraged her to strike out on her own. She just needed an idea.

Lynda Lovejoy, who will face the incumbent president of the Navajo
Nation in next month’s tribal election, is up against more than a
runoff. She’s also challenging a cultural taboo against women leaders.

Late in World War II, when the tide had turned against Germany, Adolf
Hitler tried to lift the spirits of his generals, his soldiers and the
public by claiming that “secret weapons” were under development that
would win the war quickly. The weapons were coming soon, he told
everyone. The problem: No such weapons existed.

Mackay Envelope Corp. founder and Chairman Harvey Mackay developed
these simple rules for ensuring that his friendships did not undermine
his success … and that his success did not kill his friendships:

In the middle of negotiations over a demolition job last year, the
owner of Dole Food Co. suddenly chewed out his adversary, the 285-pound
founder of a wrecking company. “Mr. Griffin,” the 150-pound, 83- year-old David Murdock told the man, “you’re fat and you’re going to die.”

Deborah Gruenfeld enjoys studying leaders who behave badly. “There are just so many good examples of people with power who behave
in ways that demand some kind of psychological explanation,” says the
director of Stanford’s Center for Leadership Development and Research.